Clayton Center for the Arts Logo
  • 865.981.8590
  • Support Us
  • Directions
  • Volunteer
  • Search
  • Clayton Center Updates on Covid-19
  • Performances & Events
    • Performances & Events
    • 2019-2020 Season
    • Visual Art Exhibits
  • Purchase Tickets
    • How to Purchase Tickets
    • Purchase Tickets
  • Plan Your Visit
    • Attend a Performance
    • Directions and Parking
    • Local Links and Calendars
  • The Center
    • Facility Overview, Seating Map(s) and Preferred Vendors
    • Support Us
    • Clayton Center Patrons Circle
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • News
    • Contact Us

A Few Words from Guy Mendilow

October 3, 2017 by Cheri Compton

Blinded by Hindsight: Exploring the Past’s Forgotten Kingdom and Ladino Songs to See More Deeply What We Face Today — Guy Mendilow

I first heard Sephardic songs in my boyhood Jerusalem home. Yet it wasn’t until later, when I started listening through other artists’ interpretations to the traditional songs and tales, that I got hooked by their riveting history of integration, migration and adaptation. These songs tell great stories. Not because they are Jewish or Mediterranean or Balkan, but because they present near-universal themes that continue to captivate today. The story of the stories—a case study in shifting identities due to migration, the evolution and change of tradition, of resilience and struggle—is alive and relevant today, too.

The story of Ladino mirrors experiences that I, and most of the artists in the Ensemble, live personally, as an immigrant to the US. Not only have we changed because we’re in new homes, but our homes have also changed because we’re in them. This is also the story of the United States and it comes at a time when we very much need to remember stories like this, to fight the darkness and small mindedness that grows so rapidly in this country.

What has haunted me as I’ve created The Forgotten Kingdom is how these stories give us a glimpse into the end of an era, and what it’s like to be caught up in the shift from one age to a very different new one. Each story/song in The Forgotten Kingdom can be pegged either to the “old world” (what we’d call a world of romantic naivety, be that right or wrong) or to the “new world” (OUR world today).

Many of these tales are set against the last vestiges of the Ottoman Empire, as a centuries-old order broke down under the weight of the traumatic Great War. The old world remained, but teetered on the brink of a new era. What was it like for those on the cusp? Imagine for a moment the soldiers in the Long “La Vuelta Del Marido.” In this song we have this very romantic notion of horses wearing breastplates of silver, of gallant officers wearing white gloves, leading the charge.

This was the picture for hundreds of years. And it was even the story of some armies in 1914. Imagine: This is actually how some of the first officers rode into the first battles of World War I. Picture this gallant soldier, riding heroically with his white gloves…straight into the meat grinder of mechanized warfare in the Battle of the Frontiers. How brutal, this clash of old and new worlds.

To us, looking back with our historical hindsight, it seems almost inevitable, especially because this was the birth of our world. But to those living through this transition of ages, the course must’ve been anything but a foregone conclusion, a too-terrible future that few would’ve dared dream. I wanted to explore what it was like to see the breakdown of empires, the glimmers of hope that then evaporate. What is it like to be caught on the wrong side, in that kind of nightmare?

In what ways are we also already straddling two worlds without even knowing it? If we, or my son’s generation, are destined to know two very different eras, the wake up call won’t come in the form of a storm of steel like in WWI. It’ll come in a modern guise. What’ll it look like this time? Is it possible that fifty, sixty years from now people will see that we also were being hurtled into very different times (climate change? The realignment caused by Trumpism/Brexit? The tensions revolving around migration and refugees?…)

The circumstances and details have shifted. Yet so much of the story still plays out. Those elements that move us in these old adventures — courage, working together across ethnic lines, strength in the face of despair — speak to ways we too might grapple with our own daunting, unfolding tale. The past lets us feel the potential risks, terrors, and wonders the future might bring, and steel ourselves to meet this future with integrity and tenderness.

For more information or tickets to the Tales From the Forgotten Kingdom concert October 12, click here.

 

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: music, stories, tales

WDVX On the Road to the Clayton Center

February 8, 2017 by Cheri Compton

When WDVX first started  in early 1997, they were broadcasting from the enclosed back porch of an A-Frame house near Peach Orchard, TN. WDVX was a fully-functioning radio station, bringing a new sound to East Tennessee and the world. In November 1997, WDVX’s started broadcasting from its first permanent home – a 14-foot camping trailer, parked at a campground off I-75. This location helped to establish WDVX’s unique culture and personality in the early days.The Blue Plate Special, once a short set of either recorded music or live performance in the camper, has grown into a live, daily lunchtime concert, complete with studio audience. Six days a week you’ll hear performances from local or touring musicians who bring incredible entertainment to music fans around the world.

WDVX moved to its current home, the studios inside the Knoxville Visitor Center in downtown Knoxville, in 2004. Now, their studio is being renovated and the Blue Plate Special is on the road. We are excited that one of their stops will be in the Clayton Center on February 17. We hope you will join us in the Foyer from 12 to 1 PM for some live music. If you can’t join us, be sure to tune it at 89.9 fm.

Playing at the Clayton Center will be Pistol Creek Catch of the Day and Jay Clark & the Tennessee Tree Beavers.

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: live radio, music

Upcoming Events

Feb
7
Sun
7:00 pm Cane Fire Documentary
Cane Fire Documentary
Feb 7 @ 7:00 pm – Feb 11 @ 11:45 pm
Cane Fire Documentary
Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers Film CANE FIRE FREE screening available for 4 days including Q&A with filmmaker. The Hawaiian island of Kauai is seen as a paradise of leisure and pristine natural beauty,[...]
Mar
7
Sun
12:00 am Warrior Women Documentary
Warrior Women Documentary
Mar 7 @ 12:00 am – Mar 11 @ 11:45 pm
Warrior Women Documentary
Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers Warrior Women Available to view for 4 days. Free screening. Screening and Q&A with Director, Producers Christina D. King and Elizabeth A. Castle. Warrior Women is the story of Madonna[...]
Apr
10
Sat
12:00 am Socks on Fire Documentary
Socks on Fire Documentary
Apr 10 @ 12:00 am – Apr 14 @ 11:45 pm
Socks on Fire Documentary
Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers Socks on Fire: Uncle John and the Copper Headed Water Rattlers Screening and Q&A with Writer, Director, Producer Bo McGuire. Free Screening available for 4 days My name is[...]
View Calendar
Add
  • Add to Timely Calendar
  • Add to Google
  • Add to Outlook
  • Add to Apple Calendar
  • Add to other calendar
  • Export to XML

Recent Posts

  • Clayton Center 10th Anniversary Merchandise
  • A Covid-19 Update from General Manager Blake Smith
  • Clayton Center for the Arts Covid-19 Information for our Patrons
  • The Wailin’ Jennys Rescheduled for February 2021.
  • National Geographic Live

Newsletter

Follow @ClaytonArts

© Copyright 2021 · Clayton Center for the Arts. All Rights Reserved ·

Copyright © 2021 · VIEO Kyan Responsive Child Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in